Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-07-09

man saw them and mOtiOning his hand fO1
them to. halt, they drew rein. and be
galloped up to them.
/ 1t is Tom Long, one Of the teamsters,
said Charley.
So it proved.
wall, Tom, what yer want?" asked
Cylone.
"The Apaches are down the valley"
@Thunderaion-wek know that. Whar &
| the train?"
That's list what come to tell We about.
"Wall, go ahead an tell it.
| yes, yes" put in Charley Myrtle, his
| face growing still paler as his anxiety in
creased. "W here is the wagon train? Has
1t crossed the rIver.
"Yes, an is on the way across the mount
ing range above here"
SGreat Scott" gasped Old Cyclone, 4the
pesky varmints II overhaul EN- sure afore
they kin git across"
@The Captain said they would, and sent
| me on to tell We to hold Limestone Gap
agin 'em fur three hours.
"Three hours! why we'll heva hundred
to fight"
aCan't help it," said the teamster, @it's
got to be DONE"
For moment the veteran frontiersman,
| the hero of hundred battles. sat on his
pony voraciously chewing the huge quid OF
| tobacco in his mouth. At last he said:
"Wall, boys, eff it's got ter be done thar
amt no use O. whinin'; now all I've got ter
say is eff tie thing kin be did, We kin do it.
But. say, Tenderfoot, ye'd better jist keep
right on ter the train"
@Why2"
@Ihar's goin to be a scrimmage."
"Well, what if there ISL" said Charley,
bravely. "My parents are with that train,
and I'm going to help defend EN-"
"Pluck, boys, by jemany." growled Old
Cyclone.
"Isnt there some way that the Apaches
could 60 around this pass, flank us, and
get to the train?"
mo, not if they're across the river.
They We got to git through Limestun Gap,
OF they can't tack the train"
"Some one must go back to the train, !"
said Tom Long. "They want word sent 'em. "
"Ye'd better go, Tenderfoot," said Cy-
clone.
NO, sir; all whom l have are with that
train, and I shall stay here to defend
them, said Charley, proudly and bravely.
wall, youngster, l admire ye," said Old
Cyclone, "but We don't know what's a COM
in! There's goin ter be blood shed. Ye've
never smelt powder an heerd bullets
screech; yer don't know what it is. The
men who stay here three hours hev jist
about got free pass inter etarnity."
81 will lose my life, if necessary, de-
Tending my pa; ents, brothers, and sisters, !"
said the brave boy.
"Then, Tom, ye'd better go back yer
SELF" said the old scout.
Tom was rather inclined to stay at the
Gap, but as Old Cyclone had some in
g. % - >ko.s "a
train in regard to the number of the
Apaches, and the place where they would
be safe from them, he had to go.
aHevye plenty O cartridges?" asked Tom.
Il dun know. Leave yer gun an all yer
got, said Cyclone. We'll want EN- afore
we're through wi this"
Tom did so, and galloped away toward
the train.
The four horsemen rode back to the pass
not over hundred yards away, and Old
Cyclone examined it and the surrounding
hills with an experienced eye. He saw at
glance the strong and weak points in the
defense of the gap. The narrow pass lay
between two tall bluffs, one of which was
twenty feet higher than tho other.
A short distance back these heights could
be reached, as the ground was sloping
enough to ride the horses up to them. Old
Cyclone then wheeled about again, with his
followers at his heels, and galloped to these
points, and Old Zach and Charley went up
one side, while he and Bill Murphy as
cended to the other.
These elevations were so near that the
scouts could converse with each other
without speaking much above converse
ional tone. In addition to his own Win
chester, Old Cyclone had the gun Of Tom
Long.
"Dismount, boys, an lay down on the
edge O the cliff, said Old Cyclone, "then
ye kin pick 'em off without bein' SEEM"
They sprang from their horses, and,
leaving them little way back, so as not
to be in the range OF bullets from below.
crept to the edge of the bluffs which over
looked the pass.
At Old Cyclones direction each man
placed large number of heavy stones on
the edge of the bluff, which might be
available to hurl down upon the heads Of
the enemy.
Remember if they get through the pass"
continued Old Cyclone, lit amt fur they'll
hev ter 60 till they kin git up here on the
bluff an lift our ha'r."
Every one understood the importance of
allowing no one to go through the pass.
"Lay low, they amt far away" said Old
Cyclone.
Charley, with his rifle ready, crept to the
edge of the bluff where he could sweep the
pass and expose but very little of his per-
son.
The others had secured favorable posi-
tons.
Only a few moments elapsed, when
Charley saw dark form fitting up toward
the pass not more than four or five hundred
yards away. Another, another, and an
other came around the bend until fully
fifty were in sight, aud then in solid
mass, silently but swiftly they advanced
toward the pass.
Old Cyclone leveled his rife, and when
they had come to within two hundred PAGES
of the gap, he bawled out to the foremost
among the Apaches:
Hold on thar, We pesky red varmint; yer
won't? then here goes" And Old Cyclones
rifle belched forth fire and smoke.
CharlSy. who watched with no little in
terest the effect OF the shot, saw the Apache |
leap into the air and fall back upon the